By
Obododimma Oha
I leave these pieces of advice to all my
"children," biological and circumstantial. I may have
borrowed extensively from the existing ideas of sages through the ages, but I
must confess that I have benefitted from my African ancestors and some living
eldery people. Anyway, I have called it a “relay race,” and I am now handing
over the baton to other members of the team happily.
The first is to try and make sure your actions and decisions
are in agreement with your mission in life. Indeed, not
many understand or try to understand their goals in life. They hardly ask
themselves: “Why am I here? Why am I here and not somewhere else?” In fact, the
most important is to understand the reason for one’s presence here and to walk in line with that goal.
As I said earlier, not many want to find answers to this these days. They prefer
to live by chance and to die unfulfilled and by chance, too. They prefer to
live casually and die casually. But this is not supposed to be so. In my Igbo
tradition, one is supposed to find out one’s mission in life and to work in agreement
with it. In Uri, this is the basis for ịrụ
agwụ. Agwụ is the powerful Igbo god that defines one’s goal or involvement
in life. Without ịrụ agwụ, a person
would be walking in the wrong direction and would not be registering progress.
In fact, the person may be acting as the insane, doing the wrong things or
acting terribly. This condition of abnormality is termed Agwụ ịkpa mmadụ (a person
being disturbed by Agwụ). But once the ritual of ịrụ agwụ is performed, the person comes to himself and begins to
think and act straight. So, ịrụ agwụ is
psycho-spiritual. But the wrong attitude that calls everything indigenous
“paganistic” has erased ịrụ agwụ.
Some people these days even go ahead and take the ọzọ title without first going through ịrụ agwụ as the tradition demands. Do they even understand ịrụ agwụ as an antecedent to taking the ọzọ title? I hope they understand the ọzọ, and are not just buying it with
money because they can afford it and want to rise higher on the social ladder!
Making sure
that one’s actions and decisions are in agreement with one’s goal in life
presupposes that one understands one’s goal in life. As I indicated above,
getting to know that goal is important, no matter the route one takes. If one
has to take the Christian or Muslim route, let one take it. If one has to take
the ịrụ agwụ route, one should take.
The most important thing is: seek and ye
shall find!
The second is
to be able to plan one's day. Planning one’s day is best when one has less
distractions. It is best when the wingless spider is spinning its craft and
webbing across the road to mesmerise the wayfarer! Planning one’s day (with one’s
chi peeping through the shoulder) is an indication of
seriousness. It is an indication that one has not come to play. Some people
make the mistake of thinking that life is like going out to watch a performance
at the village square. No! Life is not mere entertainment, even though it
contains entertaining things. So, planning one’s day is a clear statement that
one is serious and is ready to carry the trophy of victory at the end of the
day.
A plan helps
us to study our plan; to critique it; to be our own assessors before the
execution. In other words, we have the chance of looking closely at what we
have planned, before trying it out. That obviously helps us to minimize
mistakes, for nothing in life is really perfect; not even our lives!
The next is the need to get out of bed early, to be an early
riser. Rising out of one’s couch reminds one of genesis and of the beginning of the
beginning. It is the beginning of things, the beginning of action, of acting
upon one’s obligations. This rising requires harmony with one’s Chinaagụ (Chi na Agụ), being in tune in taking
action with one’s spirit being and pathfinder. Agụ is the being in charge of destiny. Is it not proper for one to
go out each day fulfilling one’s destiny, which is still in line with what one
has been created to accomplish?
Anụnụ the bird that rises early and sets out on its
journey is safer and freer. That anụnụ
may be one-legged, but it will reach its destination in peace. That anụnụ has concentration and focus, too.
That anụnụ calculates well and has
good perception. Later, the noisy many will emerge and compete for space. That anụnụ that emerged early has already
settled in to execute its plan.
The next is to live each moment of the day as your last in
the mission. Have we not heard this profoundly uttered by some
Catholic thinkers, for instance Thomas Kempis and St. Augustine? They were
right. Do we know when and where it would all be over? No; we don’t. So, be
have to get prepared always, especially as we have no control over anything. We are less than pencils in the hands of the
creator!
Living each
moment as our last is surrender, is humility, is readiness, is acceptance. Nke ahụ ga-eme, ya mee! That one that
would happen, let it happen! It is not arrogance. It calls for preparedness,
instead. Anyone who wants to live each moment of the day as his or her last
must put his or her house in other. And which house needs to be put in other
first than the self, including the body we inhabit? Which room needs to be swept and the refuse
removed than our hearts?
The next is to be able to take a stock of your actions and
decisions at the end of the day. This is very important and takes us
back to how and where we started, to our plan for the day. How have we lived
our day? Is that in agreement with our plan and with our mission in life? How
have we treated others who are also on the missions? Have we impeded or
facilitated their missions in any way? Are we ready to make adjustments if
given another opportunity?
You see:
taking stock of how we have lived the day is an important self-evaluation. It
looks at the past so as to define the future. Stock-taking exposes us to our
selves and allows us to judge ourselves.
So, my
beloved children, in handing over the baton to you, I am not giving you a mere
stick. I am rather handing over myself and these thoughts. Think about these
thoughts. Live them, if possible. But remember: you have a distance to cover as
the day dawns.
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